Friday, November 21, 2008

I Really Don't Know What This Is

It's painted red, so it's related to fire fighting? It could be red just to make sure people see it, since it's in the middle of a sidewalk. Maybe you know?

8 comments:

  1. I have no idea what it is, but good thing it is painted bright red. I could see myself running into it.

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  2. I enjoy trying to solve these mysteries. I've never seen this before but I knew the box on the right side was a tamper switch. If this was moved to the closed position an alarm would sound in the building this is serving.

    My research tells us it's an indicator post and it can close and open a valve buried below. Because it's part of the fire suppression system it has to remain open.

    Tell all your friends Debbie.

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  3. Wayne, you're so clever! So, this is near some older buildings, which must be why it's so awkwardly in the middle of a sidewalk - an after-market fit for fire safety. Really, I see these kinds of infrastructure things all the time and get distracted wondering what they do...I'm like a little rat distracted by shiny things!!!

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  4. I also like shiny little things and get distracted easy. I am glad Wayne was able to explain it.

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  5. Sorry still laughing at Jim's shniy thing commemt. I get easily distracted by other peoples comments.
    It's so striking. Wayne is a smartipants, but well done. Nothing at all like taht in the UK. We have other shiny things.

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  6. I've never seen one of these before, either. Well done, Wayne!

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  7. Well, I'm a little late, but this is a shut-off valve for a fire sprinkler system in a building was next to. It's called a Post Indicator Valve. You ever notice those little sprinkler heads up near the ceiling in a store? They trigger automatically during a fire. Once the fire is out, you have to be able to turn off those sprinklers. That's what this is for. The tamper switch has to be on there to make sure nobody closes it inadvertently and shuts off the water supply to the sprinkler system.

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